Cyber extortion: a victim's story

When a Sydney financial-services business was hit with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, they learned the hard way that not all internet-hosting providers can deliver when it really counts.

When a Sydney financial-services business was hit with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, they learned the hard way that not all internet-hosting providers can deliver when it really counts.

In the week before Christmas, Manly-based Wealth Focus discovered that its online arm, fundsfocus.com.au, was offline, thanks to a flood of bogus website traffic. Their hosting provider couldn't stop it, and eventually just suspended their account, forcing a sudden move.

Meanwhile, the criminals emailed a demand: "I will stop only after you pay me the money. I advise you to quickly reply to me as the attack is very bad impact [sic] on your business."